parmelee



UNITED STATEQEENT OFFICE a vEGE'rABLE-SLICER.

specification of Letters Patent No. 26,443, dated December""1s,lo1s59.

To all whom 'it may concern: j

Be it known that I, CI-IAUNOEY PARMELEE, ofWilmington, in the county of Windham and State of Vermont, have invented van Improved Machine for Slicing Roots or Various other Vegetable Matters; and` I do hereby declare the same is fully described and represented in the following specication and the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1, denotes a top view. Fig. `2, a side elevation. Fig. 3, a front elevation. Fig. 4, a longitudinal section. Fig. 5, a rear end view, and Fig. 6, a longitudinal section of the cutter or knife and its frame.

The nature of my invention consists, first,

' in a peculiar mode of combining with the hopper and the cutting knife, a movable and adjustable bottom or inclined plane, by which the feeding of the roots to the knife may be quickened or regulated under circumstances as hereinafter specied. Second. In a movable partition in combination with the hopper and the adjustable plane, and used for the purpose of turning long roots endwise toward the cutter. Third. In a mode of applying the cutting knife to its gateor frame.

In the drawings, A., represents a hopper for the reception of the roots or articles to besliced, it being formed so as to have its bottom or bed, B, inclined at an angle of about 45, to the vertical plane of a cutting knife C, and that of a gage or plate, D. The said knife and gage are aiiXed 1n a movable gate or carrier, E, applied to the hopper in such manner as not only to form the front part thereof, but to be capable of being moved freely upward and downward between guides a, a, a', a applied to the sides of the hopper as shown in the drawings. Furthermore, the said gate or carrier is so connected with a lever or brake Gr, having its fulcrum at the top of a vibrating post, H, as to enable a person by taking hold of the lever and moving it on its 'fulcrum to work or move the carrier, its knife and gage in vertical directions. The gageD, is arranged directly against the lower end of the inclined chute B, and so that the upper edge of the said gage may be even with or a littlebelow the top surface of the said chute, when the knife C, is down upon the chute. Furthermore, the arrangement of the knife and gage is such that the former is parallelv to the latter and inadvance of it a distance equal to the thicknessfof h"fslice,`it may be sirable to havetaken;` from ai; rootjth gage being of a suiicientfwidth to c end of the chute when the knife israis j the bedas high asi may be desirable "Lto, enable a suitable quantity ofthe root `may be in the `hopper to movefor to thegage andunderneath` thejkn j From the above, it `lbe see j that part of thebed or chutejofkthe per which is in advance "ofthe knife whenfthe latter is down" uponhthe bedisbso"inclined1"` and has the top edgeof thegage evenwith j. or below it that it, `(suchinclined part) will aid in causing the slicestofall away from j` the knife and overthe top` of thega e" l Within the hop A, jis the` platform or inclinedfplane Kgwhos j end rests on thefloor ofthehopper, o j the upper end is supported by being hinged f or jointed to zpitman, L," extending upward g from a lever, arranged at therear end of f the machine, and extending into a rack, N, y arranged as shown in `the drawings.` "The said rack serves to supfportI the lever and of j course, the rear endgo the platform, K,";at\\ any desirable elevation. j By raising the plate C form to a eater inclination, as` themass of."I y roots whic may bein the hoppermay di-` j j minish, the gravitating power and flowage of the roots toward t e knife fmay be i11- creased and they may` bel prevented"from` sticking to the bottom or` lane"of the hope` l per, and not beingproper y fedforward as j is oftentimes the case `whenthe` inclinationpj of the bottom ofthehopper isnot capable i of being raised. l l f @E In the middle ofthe hopper there is adi` .1 visional board orpartitiorno, which extends j through the plane, lo, and is held in place? thereby and by recesses r, s, arranged in the l 1 upper and lowerparts ofthehopper,"a"prolf j jection, t, from the partitionfbeing extend into the lowermost recess.

For retaining the knife withinits gateth two ends of the knife are insertedin groo u, u, made in the inner sides of the slide of the gate a screw, o, being passed through o the middle ofl thej upper part of thejknifew` l and into the gate. l This mode of applying?` 1 the knife enables it to be convenientlyremoved from the gate for being sharpened. o The partition of the hopper operates to tu n" endwise, long roots such as beets or car o ,Y and presentthem 1in uch manner to the f knife during its vertical movements. lo

In operating with this machine potatoes or other vegetable matters may be chopped or sliced to great advantage and celerity as well as with little labor. After being placed in the hopper its inclined bottom VVor bed byl the action of gravity will cause them to be moved forward against the gage while the latterand the knife are being raised by the hand lever. During the descent of the said lever, the knife will pass through the roots orpotatoes and as soon as it may come in contact with the bed, the slices severed by it, will be discharged 'from the knife by part of the inclined bed inY manner as hereinbefore described.

A machine ofthe above kind can be man; ufactured Vand sold at a very small price, or one'generall'y speaking, much less than that V*for which the Ordinary'ro'tary root cho ping machines can beV made and sold.

lI am aware that it is not new'to apply to the hopper of a root slicing machine, a revolving bottom hung to the sides of the hopper, bymeans of an axle arranged at about the middle of the said bottom. Therefore I do not claim the invention of a movable bottom nor the said mode of applying it as such for any change in position of the bottom, required another knife frame to be applied to the hopper, whereas any change'of inclination ofthe movable floor K, of my machine needs no change of knife frame as the lower end of the plane is always stationary relatively to the hopper and knife frame, but v What I do claim isl. SupportingV the frontend -:of the adjusty able plane or bottom, K, on the fixed bottom board of the hopper sothat it shall be stationary relatively, to the gate( and arranging at the rear end of the p1ane,'K, the mechanism lfor raising it.

2. I also claim the application of the b'o'ardor partition, 0, to the hopper and the adjustable platform, la, substantially in man- 

